heh... Yes, that's true. So, if a Christian thinks burning the Qur'an is OK, but not the Bible, then you wouldn't see any bigotry in that? No, it's not meant to be offensive and the reason why more than one religion exists is because many different people in different places made the same sort of Type 2 false positive errors and eventually codified these into religions.
Its always a struggle to redefine the norm as outliers while pretending the outliers ought to be the norm. Perhaps you need to redefine the hypothesis you are testing.
But the people of this youthful city in central Florida are taking his actions personally, with anger and heartbreak, as one of their neighbors drags their hometown into nearly nonstop news coverage and infamy. Gainesville, after all, is a university town that until a few months ago was best known for producing college football champions, Gatorade and rockers like Tom Petty. Educated and progressive, with a gay mayor and a City Commission made up entirely of Democrats, Gainesville is a sprawling metropolis of 115,000 people where smoothie shops seem to outnumber gun shops. City Disavows Pastor’s Talk of Burning Koran
Well, here it is. The “Submit to De Facto Islamic Law (aka 9-11) Day”. Brought to you by the same kind of religious fanatics who trampled 1,426 fellow Muslims to death during Hajj in 1990 — Hajj being the most noble act in Islam. And by the same kind of fanatics who tore apart Ayatollah Khomeini’s coffin and desecrated his body in front of the whole world because they supposedly venerated him. The vast majority of Islamic fanatics do not fly airliners into infidel buildings. In fact, in the name of Islam, your typical Muslim fanatic has killed almost as many Muslims at Hajj as they did infidels on 9-11. Over the years, Muslims have killed at least 2,861 fellow Muslims during Hajj, mostly by trampling each other to death caused by their Islamic fanaticism. This number rivals the 2,996 deaths resulting from the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
Commemorating the initiation of WWIII. This book burning event reveals part of the problem. A war of ideologies has begun. It didn't start with the pushing of a red button. It just happens somewhere along the way.
In today's front section (not front page) of my Sao Paulo newspaper there is large photo of young boy pissing on US flag. It is not on the ground as I imagined here: http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2617498&postcount=398 but held in front of him by several adult men. The happy and cheering crowd fills the photo so it is hard to say how large it is (more that 20), but there is no mistake about the pleasure they have with the boy's action. The event took place in Multan, Pakistan.
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Muslims actually committing a symbolic act (pissing on the US flag) in response to merely threatening to commit a symbolic act (burning a qur'an). They can't abide by quid pro quo. They must resort to escalation. September 11th has a new name in America: Submit to Islamic Law Day. We mustn't offend these Islamic nut cases. Terrorism works.
OMG I've got a supporter.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Look, I'm English. It was sarcasm, dimwit.
Because you don't seem to think that all religions should inherently share such a right, if it even existed:
Likewise the US flag - proper disposal is by burning. I could have sworn I'd seen that before, years ago, as well. No big deal.
Here's a quandary. I have a qur'an that I don't want anymore, and I don't want to give it to a Muslim. So, what do I do with it?
You might better give it to a liberal church or almost any Synagogue which has a library, if they don't have one. Christian Science Centers almost always have a library. When I lived not far from one I went there about once per week to read the Monitor.* If there is a public library near you, which does not have one give, it to them. Many years ago I was near the mosque in DC and knew little about Islam, so I took off my shoes and went in. They had the Koran in English and I spent an nearly an hour reading it. It is terrible as a recruitment tool. I found it very boring - All I can remember now is page after page about some dealings with cows in the initial section that I read. The Bible is much more interesting (except the early books telling "X begot Y" for pages). It has lots of killing, trickery and sex to keep your interest. Thus, you don't need to worry, if you would, that you are helping to convert converts to Islam. ----------------- * I don't know what it is like now, but 40 years ago it was one of the few news papers that I really trusted. PS: I hope Pinwheel's "do it grudgingly" is meant as I took it - I.e. Make it appear as if you are not sure you want to part with your copy, perhaps saying that it is seldom read as you are so busy - that it is a shame it just sits on your book shelf.
Lousy comparison. The big and important difference between the two is that the Nazi book burnings in 1933 were done with cooperation of the government. The church that's planning to burn the Koran is acting on its own and only damaging their own privately owned property.
That faulty comparison has already been exposed. All policies are based on ideas, and flag burning is just as much a rejection of the idea as it is the policy.
" ... Adele Welty, 74, whose son, Timothy Welty, died in the attack at age 34, intended to avoid the Ground Zero ceremony. She preferred to visit the Maspeth, Queens, firehouse where her son was a firefighter. “It’s totally inappropriate to be demonstrating on 9/11, which should be a day of respect for the dead and for each other,” she said in an Aug. 23 interview. “The more we aggravate the situation instead of trying to resolve it in a civil manner, the more we disrespect the dead.” ..." from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...-11-anniversary-with-ceremonies-protests.html Billy T Comment: Amen.
Then why all the hubbub about the book burnings? Unless it's the meaning behind the burning that is the issue. In which case, you'll need to do a little better than simply claiming that book burning is "similar to arson and terrorism", especially when burning the flag in specific country is far more incendiary, insulting and offensive than burning the Koran. Burning a thing--especially when that "thing" is owned by the individual doing the burning--on private property that's owned by the same individual is not even remotely an act of violence, no matter how offensive it may be. You've yet to demonstrate, definitively, how it can be considered an act of terrorism or arson, when those words have clear--universally accepted--definitions. ~String
Wow. Talk about a serious fundamental lack of understanding. When foreign nationals burn, for example, the American flag - they are most definitely sending out more or less the same message as say if they burned a copy of the US constitution (which is written word on paper and therefore effectively the same as book burning). The only reason why you don't see this form of protest is because a flag is much more visually symbolic (for the sake of pictures, too). Just because one object may be deemed "holy" by others does not make it inherently any different than burning a secular object. The difference is virtual. The difference arises from the intolerance and arrogance of the faithful. I disagree with the concepts and ideas expressed in the Qur'an, perhaps very similarly to how a Muslim in the Middle East would disagree with some country's foreign policy (which is an idea, a concept, an ideology (perhaps) or thought or thoughts expressed through what we call policy). It goes without saying that the pastor of that church had every right to burn their own property, however they saw fit. In fact, just the threatening of burning the Qur'an has succeeded in showing just how terrorism is indeed winning against the minds of the West. Offending Islam? You just don't do it. However distasteful and despicable the act might have seemed. In the end, nobody was being a) harmed b) mistreated c) abused d) coerced e) denied any rights... and so on. If he had burned the books and in doing so unleashed a wave of violence across the planet... I'm sorry, but the finger should always be pointed to the violent offender. Being offended never gives anybody the right to violence. Never.
